Revelation 12:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

When the best and chosen teachers of the Church, and those who have despised earthly things, withdraw into the wilderness from the calamities, Antichrist will be deceived in his plans against them. He will rise up to wage war against the soldiers of Christ in the world, in order to triumph over them. He will expect to catch them easily, as though they were sprinkled with earthly dust and drawn away by worldly things. Yet many of them too will prove victorious, for they have sincerely loved Christ.

Since the serpent's second design also was not accomplished, how then did he finally begin to act toward those who are called sons and brethren of the Lord, that is, toward the faithful? He began to persecute them, because they are of the woman's seed. For the faithful are sons and brethren of the Lord according to what is written: "I will declare Your name to My brethren" (Heb 2:12), and again: "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me" (Is 8:18). Since they are kin to His Mother, he wages war against them. He persecutes them and plots against them, killing them by the hands of the tyrants and rulers of the earth, when the faithful confess that He Who was born of the Virgin is God.

Seeing his inability to continue the persecutions that had been swallowed by the mouth of the holy earth, the devil armed himself still more in the mystery of iniquity, so as to continue laying his nets. "Those who keep the commandments of God," and so on. To keep the commandments of God in faith in Jesus Christ means to fight against the dragon and challenge him to battle. And praise be to God, Who prevailed over the dragon's primeval savagery. Behold, he who strove to destroy the Lord born in the flesh was cast down by His Resurrection. Later he sought to take from the apostles their confidence in teaching, as though trying to remove the woman, that is, the whole Church, from human affairs. But since this too did not succeed, he now fights against the faithful in every generation.

Christians have no reason to dream of golden days or to expect them. Tribulation has been foretold for them, and we see this. From whom, then, must Christians suffer tribulation? Persecution by pagan tormentors has ceased, and Christians live among Christians. Indeed, open persecutors and tormentors are no more, and glory be to God. But the devil, the chief tormentor, still continually raises persecution against the pious, according to Scripture: "And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev 12:17). Behold the chief tormentor of Christians.

"When the best teachers of the Church," writes St Andrew of Caesarea, "move into the wilderness for the time of calamities, Antichrist will raise war against those who fight for Christ in the world. He will seek to triumph over them, finding them drawn into the affairs of life. Yet many of them will conquer him by sincere love for Christ."

These words indicate that continuous and age-long struggle which the hostile seed of the serpent began against the seed of the woman. This happened after Christianity was established and the Church of Christ had spread over the whole face of the earth. The devil will wage this struggle until the end of the world, with ever increasing bitterness and cunning. At last all his efforts will be exhausted and brought to an end in the person of Antichrist.